September week 3

Another week flown by - and you can now sense it's getting autumnal - definitely not as warm as it had been recently - and we notice the leaves are now spotting brown a bit.

My week went virtually as planned - and as outlined in last week's blog - a couple of cycles and 4 games of golf. Definitely going to be a slow one today - newspapers, TV - to allow my body to recover from the stiffness I feel just now. Got a big match tomorrow - can't let Scotland down in our annual Challenge match v the Rest of the World!

I went along to the Legion on Thursday night for a hands-on training session at River Dee Radio. the tutor/presenter, Richard, was keen for us to try out the mixing desk and do a test broadcast using the Zara Radio software, but I'm not ready for any live broadcasting - I would rather pre-record shows, but this means using a different piece of software (Audacity) and Richard didn't know much about this, so I'm going to do some training on this next week.

Incidentally, next Saturday morning (1st) from 10 am to 1:00 pm there's a live show going out, featuring all the volunteer presenters, each of whom has been asked to provide two tracks to demonstrate what their show is likely to be about. I don't think I'll be able to make it along as we've got our flu jabs and then we're going to the Cowshed for lunch (double 70th birthday celebration and 50th anniversary for Les and Angela Gray). Andy Marshall is going along to represent the Banchory Headbangers. Don't forget the link to listen to River Dee Radio is http://tunein.com/radio/River-Dee-Radio-s274232

Tonight (Saturday) we're going to the Kilgours for dinner - that should be nice.

I've enjoyed the two rides I've had on my new hybrid bike so far - it's definitely easier than my mountain bike, which is going in again to the bike shop on Monday to try again to have its squealing brakes fixed.

I noticed an article in the press giving a link to a web site (https://qrisk.org/2016/) on which you can input some of your personal details and it gives you your risk of heart attack/stroke in the next 10 years. I did mine and it came out at 20.4%, which is above the 16% norm for someone of my age etc:

I played around with it a bit to see if I could get the risk factor down - I immediately thought perhaps weight was a factor, so I lopped 10 kgs off my real weight, but it made very little difference to the overall score. What did affect it greatly was the tick box for Atrial Fibrillation - if I unticked it and pretended I didn't have AF, my risk fell to 12% - well below the healthy average. Scary thought - that's something I can't do anything about.

That's all for now folks - until next week. Take care.

September week 2

Another week has flown by - and the weather has been great. When Brian and Mary were here last weekend we went out to the Derbar for a meal - our second visit there in a few days - and it was just as good as the first time.

Ross and Lizzie seemed to enjoy their weekend in Hamburg for Lizzie's young brother's wedding - although Lizzie seemed to pick up a bug and has been a bit poorly these last few days. If you didn't see the photo of the two of them on FaceBook, here it is:

On Monday afternoon I went for a bike ride with Colin and Dave. We drove up to Aboyne and cycled along the Tarland Way, doing a couple of loops of the Tarland Trails when we got there, before heading back down through Dinnet and along the Deeside Way, stopping at Deeside Gliding Club. Nice ride.

Tuesday was a Seniors match at Royal Aberdeen, where the normal green fees are now £172 - glad we didn't have to pay that! It was a lovely day and we experienced the phenomenon of having a light breeze behind us on the way out, which turned right round and followed us on the inward half. Normally at least 9 holes are played in to a howling wind - what a pleasant change.

Wednesday was golf at Banchory while Jo was away on her usual swim session, then on Thursday we decided to go in to Aberdeen to watch the world premiere of the new Beatles' documentary Eight Days a Week.  I thought I would take the chance to do some bike shop browsing again so we headed to Evans Cycles near the Haudagain roundabout - and this time, I jumped - I bought myself the new hybrid I'd always promised myself:

Friday was golf again - this time at Arbroath, a course I'd never played and it turned out to be a wee gem.

Saturday was quiet - Jo and I strolled down to the village in the warm sunshine. The Farmers' market was on and we had a look but didn't buy anything. We watched the second episode of The Night Of in the evening - looks promising.

Golf again this morning (Sunday) then crispy aromatic duck for dinner - lovely.

Busy week coming up again:

• Monday - gas service + our IFA arriving to update our finances, followed by a game of golf
• Tuesday - cycle in the morning, Inverurie in the afternoon/evening
• Wednesday - golf in the afternoon
• Thursday - cycle in the morning then local radio training session in the evening
• Friday - last Seniors match of the season at Scotscraig (Tayport)

We've got our annual Scotland v Rest of the World Challenge match on Sunday - traditionally the season ender.

The more observant readers will have noticed the reference above to local radio training on Thursday. River Dee Radio has started test transmissions - check it out at http://tunein.com/radio/River-Dee-Radio-s274232/ - and they are looking for volunteers to help out. We - the Banchory Headbangers - are considering putting a programme together. I've done some online training and am booked for a hands-on session on Thursday night. I'm not sure about the presenting bit, but I like putting programmes/themes together. We'll see what develops.